Thursday, 1 February 2018

Media Quotes of the Week: From insults fly over the Trump, Morgan interview to NUJ accuses BBC managers of lying to women journalists over pay

Piers Morgan‏ on Twitter: "I’m going to donate £1000 to charity for the nastiest, bitchiest review of #TrumpMorgan - from all the media outlets who failed to get an interview with President Trump."

John Crace in the Guardianon the Morgan Trump interview: "Piers would have got more sensible answers from most 10-year- olds. And Graham Norton would have asked more probing questions. As a serious interview, the whole thing was pretty much a non-starter. But it had never been about that. It had been about entertainment. The Piers and Donald show, and it wouldn’t have mattered if they had spent the whole time talking rubbish. So that was precisely what they had done."

John Simpson‏ on Twitter: "The art of the political interview, Piers, is to push your interviewee hard - not let them spout self-evident tosh. That's just showbiz."

Piers Morgan Retweeted John Simpson

Piers Morgan‏ on Twitter responding to Simpson: "The BBC led on revelations from my interview all Friday morning, and Andrew Marr said it had made real news. So it would appear you’re the one spouting tosh, you pompous old prune."

Suzanne Moore in the Guardian: "Asking if Donald Trump is a feminist is like asking if Piers Morgan is a journalist: unnecessary and embarrassing, given the evidence before us."

James Delingpole in TheSpectator: "Here’s the biggest problem of all with Piers Morgan, though. Yes, he’s the annoying little tosser you absolute loathed at school because he was so bumptious and full of himself and perpetually on the make, not nearly as clever as you and with no obvious talents save outrageous chutzpah and zero self-doubt. And now, there he is, a gazillion times more successful than you. But what’s worse, far worse, is that you have to concede that he probably deserves it....Morgan has bagged his career-defining love-in with Trump and, for all his irritating braggadocio, I can’t think of a person on earth who could have done a better job."

Donald Trump at Davos, as reported by CNN: "As a businessman I was always treated really well by the press... and it wasn't until I became a politician that I realised how nasty, how mean, how vicious, and how fake the press can be."

Bill Browder‏ on Twitter: "Message to Western journalists writing about Putin’s fake elections on March 18. He’s killed, imprisoned and exiled all real opponents. He stuffs the ballot box. Anytime you use the word “election” please use quotation marks around the word not to legitimize Putin’s farce."

The Sunday Times [£] in a leader on why the paper held back its Insight investigation into senior politicians exploiting their connections for lobbyists post-Brexit: "The simple fact, which the public has a right to know, is that we withheld publication of our investigation on compassionate grounds as we were preparing to go to press. At the disruptive time of 4.30pm last Saturday a public relations spokesman for Lord Lansley delivered a “confidential” letter from his cancer specialist about his medical treatment. It included details of his condition that we will not be revealing here. The Sunday Times felt it would be improper to rush ahead with publication in the circumstances. We concluded that the humane decision was to pause and consider the implications of the letter from Lord Lansley’s doctor, in consultation with Channel 4. Our reporting was exclusive and on this occasion, as we have demonstrated today, it could wait."

Lionel Barber‏ on Twitter:"Our original story exposing The Presidents Club has just gone over 2m page views - that’s a tribute to technology but also shows it touched a nerve."

David Yelland on Twitter: "Could the @FT’s undercover tabloid tactics erode the wider business world’s trust in its journalists? Reality is the FT can’t know. It will win awards and the current private anger about this may pass. But trust has been damaged, for good or ill."

Guardian Media Group CEO David Pemsel, quoted by DIGIDAY UK: “We’re making great progress with our three-year strategy and on track to break even by 2019. The media sector remains challenging. However, our reader revenues are growing well, our advertising proposition remains strong, and more people are reading us than ever before. We now reach over 150 million unique browsers each month and we have over 800,000 supporters.”

Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson in the Express & Star, Wolverhampton: "All Section 40 is going to do is destroy the local press and take away a local voice for so many people around the country. That is why it is vital we get rid of Section 40 and ensure we give local newspapers the opportunity to dig out the facts that need to be revealed. Anyone who voted for Section 40 is voting to get rid of their local newspaper."

BBC News reports: "There is 'no gender bias' regarding pay decisions at the BBC, according to a new report into the corporation. But the BBC's approach to setting pay in general 'has been far from perfect', auditors PwC found."

Carrie Gracie speaking to the Commons Digital, Culture and Sport Committee, as reported by BBC News: "The thing that's very unacceptable to me… it [the BBC] basically said in those three previous years - 2014, 2015 and 2016 - I was 'in development'."

The NUJ in evidence on BBC pay to the DCMS Select Committee: "Worse than the routine secrecy over pay, is the fact that many NUJ members were deliberately misled by BBC management over their salary levels, in some cases despite explicitly querying whether they were being paid equally to male comparators. In numerous cases, women were given assurances that their earnings were on a level pegging with men doing work of equal value, colleagues carrying out a commensurate role or even presenters they were sharing the same sofa with and quoted NUJ general secretary Michelle Stanistreet saying: 'In the months since, I have lost count of the women journalists who say they have been lied to, misled and let down by the organisation they have committed their careers to'."

About Me

I am a freelance journalist based in the UK and was deputy editor of Press Gazette, the journalists' magazine, from 1993 until 2006. I want to give an independent view on media matters.
You can contact me with stories, ideas and comments by email at jon.slattery369@btinternet.com You can also follow me on Twitter @jonslattery